


A Christmas Miracle

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Character Turned Into a Ghost, Christmas, Christmas Miracles, Established Relationship, Inspired by A Christmas Carol, Kissing, M/M, Not Really Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 19:57:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17230253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Lester doesn't like Christmas.





	A Christmas Miracle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [knitekat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knitekat/gifts).



> Written as a Christmas present for the lovely knitekat who gave the prompt “in the dark”. Mention of canonical character death – I promise this is a happy Christmas fic!

Lester stared down at the paper on his desk and frowned. Either he was far more tired than he thought or there was £10,000 missing from the accounts. He rubbed at his eyes and pulled a calculator close to him and began meticulously redoing his sums.

“Blast it all,” he muttered as once again the results clearly showed a great deal of money missing.

The worst of it was that Lorraine was now away for two weeks for the Christmas holidays, the accountants would be just as short staffed and he'd spotted most of the anomaly team pulling straws earlier to see who would have to be on call on Christmas Day.

He pushed himself back from his desk and stood up, stretching aching shoulders and arms as he surveyed the atrium below. Two Christmas trees were standing in each far corner. One, decorated by Connor, had a dinosaur theme. The other, decorated by Lorraine, was a more tasteful representation of Christmas in reds and golds. Tinsel was wrapped around the atrium's banisters and Lorraine had even managed to sneak in a Santa teddy bear that had found its way to the top of Lester's filing cabinet.

He supposed Christmas cheer was a good thing. For some people.

He however had long grown out of such things.

“That's not entirely true, is it?”

Lester did not jump, because he was above such things. And also because this wasn't the first time he'd heard Ryan's voice in his head since the man had died.

“Perhaps not. But that doesn't matter now does it?”

“Why not?”

Lester found himself flinching at the sudden shift of light next to him.

“I see I've reached the insane part of my journey through life,” he said. The ghostly figure in front of him smiled and flickered and wavered and one moment Lester could see his desk through the figure's body and the next the figure was as solid as a living breathing Captain Ryan.

“You're not going mad, James.”

Lester tapped down firmly on the familiar spike of desire he felt with his name tripping off Ryan's tongue.

“I most certainly am.”

“Come on, I have something to show you.”

Lester tried to move away from the surprisingly real feeling grip of the ghost Ryan.

But before he could further protest or shout for help he was falling.

* * * * *

Lester blinked as he saw his old childhood home materialising in front of him. A large Christmas tree was being decorated by his mother, who was wearing a sparkly dress and keeping up a running commentary to the toddler Lester sitting on the carpet.

“No,” Lester said, quietly, not even sure what he was saying. “No.”

He and ghost Ryan watched as toddler Lester picked up a bauble and handed it to his mother, who laughed and picked him up so he could help her put it on the tree. Then she swung him around and his father came in and laughing they both pressed him close as they danced, all three of them, his parents singing Ding Dong Merrily on High.

Lester, who had something in his eye, turned away from the scene.

“You used to love the magic of Christmas,” Ryan said, softly.

“There's no such thing as magic.”

“There's no such thing as time travel, either.”

* * * * *

Lester cleared the dust from his eyes and found himself back at the Home Office. His assistant was sitting at her desk with tinsel in her hair and dangly bauble earrings that jangled every time she moved. A sparkly white Christmas tree was standing in one corner and the sound of champagne corks popping could be heard just outside.

“Time for you to get going, Jackie,” Lester told her, adjusting his tie which was decorated with smiling Santas – a sufferance he was only enduring because his assistant had worked twenty hours overtime in the last week to help with a particularly difficult request from the PM.

“Thank you! You will be joining us, won't you?”

“I'll be along shortly,” he agreed and waited until she had left to place a small gift on her seat that she'd only see when she was getting ready to leave.

Then he headed out to the party, singing Jingle Bells quietly under his breath.

“What happened, James? You refused to go the ARC's Christmas party this year, though you must have known they wanted you there. You're as much a part of the team as they are.”

“You know what happened,” Lester replied.

“You don't know what happened,” Ryan said.

* * * **

This time when Lester opened his eyes he couldn't see anything. Everything was dark and when he waved his hand in front of his eyes nothing happened. He couldn't even see Ryan's ghostly figure any more.

“What's going on?” he asked. A heavy silence answered him. “Ryan? Where are you?”

“Sensory deprivation,” Ryan's voice said, sounding as if it was echoing all around him. “You need to think James, really think. What happened? Why did you lose all your joy for the season.”

“You _know_ what happened!” Lester snapped.

“Tell me then. Tell me what I know.”

“You _died!”_ Lester shouted into the dark, and took a deep, sobbing breath.

“And?”

“And? And? And I never told you I loved you!”

There was no reply to this and Lester swung out, trying to hit something, anything, but there was only darkness.

* * * * *

The light was blinding and Lester waved his hands around to try and stop it.

“Lester? Lester what are you doing?” Jenny asked.

Lester blinked away the lights and realised that he was back in his office, with no sign of the ghostly Ryan and Christmas lights twinkling everywhere. He was fairly certain there were more in his office than there had been before, but before he could check for sure he realised that Jenny was saying something to him.

“I'm sorry, what was that?”

“It's the Forest of Dean site,” she paused and put her hand on his arm. “James, it's...”

The door opened behind her and Lester's world suddenly narrowed and turned dark.

“He's – I -”

Ryan was standing in front of him, a real solid Ryan. He couldn't see the door behind him through Ryan's waist, could see and hear him breathing. He was real and solid and looking a little bruised and battered with rips in his uniform but he was unquestionably, absolutely alive.

Lester didn't hesitate, he stepped forward and pulled Ryan into a kiss. Ryan looked a little surprised for a moment but then quickly moved to hold Lester close.

“Well,” Jenny said, amused more than anything, “I'll just leave you to it.” She quietly slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her. “Merry Christmas, James."


End file.
